15 h 28 minAudiobook12 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 15 h 28 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What lies behind a name that becomes a word for cruelty?
In The Marquis de Sade and His Time, Iwan Bloch looks beyond scandal to examine Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade. He places the French nobleman in the rich, deeply unequal world of eighteenth-century France, then follows a life marked by repeated arrests and long confinement under the monarchy, the Revolution and the regime that follows.
Bloch, a German physician and an early researcher in sexual science, treats Sade's writings as evidence. Novels, tales and philosophical dialogues become material for questions about desire, history and medicine. Justine, Juliette and The 120 Days of Sodom enter a study that asks what the sources can show, rather than what a notorious reputation suggests.
What you’ll discover
- An age of inequality See how Bloch places Sade within the wealth and power of the French aristocracy.
- Between prison and freedom Follow repeated arrests and long confinements across changing regimes in France.
- Fiction examined as evidence Explore how Bloch reads Sade's novels and dialogues for clues about desire and his age.
- Sexual science takes shape Encounter an early medical attempt to describe sexual behaviour through the case of Sade.
- Beyond a notorious name Consider the distance between legend, strong feelings and what the sources can support.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who enjoy cultural history, the French eighteenth century, the Revolution, or the history of ideas about sex and crime.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Explain Sade through his time, not alone
- The age worshipped pleasure and called it philosophy
- The court and the nobility set the example
- Police files give Sade's attack on priests a basis
- Women, books, pictures and dress fed the mood
- Paris supplied every setting his novels use
- A century of lust was also a century of blood
- A noble boy, a forced marriage and two scandals
- Prison, revolution and Charenton shaped the writer
- Sade's books, his system and Bloch's verdict
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Le marquis de Sade et son époque
by Iwan Bloch · 1900
A Berlin doctor in 1899 sets out to explain the Marquis de Sade by putting his whole century on the table.
Medium level10–20 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
How does a man whose name became a word for cruelty come out of a polite French family, a royal court and a century of philosophers? That is the question Iwan Bloch sets himself.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Explain Sade through his time, not alone
Bloch writes for doctors, lawyers, historians and philosophers, and he refuses to apologise for his subject. Evil exists, he says, and it must be studied, exposed and, if possible, removed.
His introduction sets out a science of love with three problems: the physical, the historical and the metaphysical. Then comes the claim that shapes everything after it. Heredity counts for far less in sexual life than habit, example and seduction.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 12 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1900
- Language
- français
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Bloch, Iwan. The Marquis de Sade and His Time. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-marquis-de-sade-and-his-time.
Bloch, I. (2026). The Marquis de Sade and his time. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-marquis-de-sade-and-his-time (Original work published 1900)
Bloch, Iwan. The Marquis de Sade and His Time. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-marquis-de-sade-and-his-time.
@book{bloch2026marquis,
author = {Bloch, Iwan},
title = {The Marquis de Sade and His Time},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-marquis-de-sade-and-his-time},
note = {First published 1900}
}
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What is The Marquis de Sade and His Time about?
It is a scholarly study of Sade's life, his novels and the eighteenth-century France that shaped him. Bloch covers the court, clergy, brothels and Revolution, Sade's scandals and prisons, his books, his philosophy and the theory of sadism.
When was The Marquis de Sade and His Time written, and who was Iwan Bloch?
Bloch, a Berlin physician, signed the preface in December 1899. He called the book the first scholarly original work on Sade in a living European language and wrote it for doctors, lawyers, historians and philosophers.
Did the Marquis de Sade commit the crimes described in the Keller and Marseille affairs?
Bloch gives several accounts of the Keller affair of 1768 and the Marseille affair of 1772. He notes that they differ, concludes nobody died at Marseille, and says the victims were not seriously injured. The sources are letters and memoirs.
The author
Iwan Bloch
1872–1922 · German dermatologist and sexologist
Iwan Bloch was a German dermatologist and sexologist. He was born in Delmenhorst in 1872 and died in Berlin in 1922. He worked as a physician in Berlin. His writings included The Marquis de Sade and His Time and The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization.
More by Iwan Bloch
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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